Anna Swenson – Fix Contributor – The College Fix

Backwards progress: WH reaffirms support for affirmative action

Anna Swenson - Fix Contributor — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:22:36 +0000

And now for the latest news in backwards progress: The Obama administration has issued a memo asserting the importance of affirmative action in education, including college admissions decisions. The new guidelines are a reversal in White House policy from a 2008 letter issued by President Bush that called admissions decisions based on race “highly suspect” and noted numerous limitations to race…

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The liberal arts: Only for the 1%?

Anna Swenson - Fix Contributor — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 20:14:12 +0000

If there is one certain result of the Occupy Wall Street movement and its many metastases, it is the increasing smugness of its opponents. Whether or not you agree with the one or any of the many divergent cardboard signs or shouted epithets of the movement, this — like any articulation of discontent — deserves a respectful, well-reasoned consideration. However, as is becoming evermore typical in…

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If we ban smoking to prevent cancer, why not ban skirts to prevent rape?

Anna Swenson - Fix Contributor — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 14:22:07 +0000

There would — and should — undoubtedly be a mass uproar if a college administration advised against wearing short skirts, dresses, or other “provocative clothing” in order to prevent sexual assault. Though authorities on the matter draw a correlation between wearing short skirts and being raped, sensible citizens agree that a woman ought to be granted the autonomy to choose to wear whatever she…

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Arizona low-income scholarship program sees 46 percent drop

Anna Swenson - Fix Contributor — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 14:21:47 +0000

We’ve long been vocal about the promise of the Arizona Assurance program, a semi-private program that provides opportunity to low-income Arizona students to attend the University of Arizona at no direct cost to them or their families. Yet for just as long, we’ve been concerned about the program’s ability to sustain itself against what will only be an increasing need for financial aid…

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Arizona legislature passes campus concealed carry

Anna Swenson - Fix Contributor — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 14:10:48 +0000

The Arizona legislature passed a bill that will allow the concealed carry of weapons on college campuses; the measure now awaits Governor Jan Brewer’s signature before becoming law. Several UA groups including the ASUA Senate and the Office of the President have loaded their chambers with disapproving ammunition, but if the bill is fired into law, UA students might potentially have a place on…

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Arizona State conducts student fees survey — after student leaders approved changes

Anna Swenson - Fix Contributor — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 21:34:26 +0000

It’s one thing for student leaders to ask for input from the students they represent before drafting proposals to the Regents. It’s another thing for student leaders to disregard that input from students in favor of the wishes of administrators. It’s quite another thing for student leaders to ask for student input only after they have already offered the collective student body’s stamp of…

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Bacchanalic Miscellania: It’s finals, and it’s Christmas

Anna Swenson - Fix Contributor — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 16:29:15 +0000

Raise a glass — or a be-nogged hand– and enjoy: A few delightfully intoxicating links have been piling up next to our jug of moonshine: 1. You may think that jungle juice theme parties are a modern disease, but as this month’s Bookforum elucidates, it’s merely the latest twist of orange peel on the punch tradition from the 18th century and earlier: The age of discovery – fueled by hard…

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Studying sauced: Big fun, won’t hurt your grade — no, really

Anna Swenson - Fix Contributor — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 14:46:33 +0000

Been staying sober recently, in preparation for finals? You don’t need to, according to SCIENCE: As long as a student manages to wake up for your exam and stumble to the correct classroom, the fact that he accompanied his studying with a shot for every chapter of the textbook he didn’t read does not appear to have a significant affect on your final grade: So even though it may feel…

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The obscene obscenity policy from the U of Arizona Dean of Students

Anna Swenson - Fix Contributor — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 22:44:28 +0000

When hundreds of students stripped down to their knickers for the last week’s ZonaZoo Undie Run, should they have been cited and potentially punished by the Dean of Students for a Student Code of Conduct violation? Should the students who produced this week’s production of The Vagina Monologues be punished for “lewd or obscene behavior” at the discretion of the UA Administration?

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Hey, Arizona student senate, who’s your favorite Indian? (Updated)

Anna Swenson - Fix Contributor — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 23:47:01 +0000

One might assume that the representative body of the 38,ooo students at the UA should at least have a passing interest in”diversity and inclusion.” Yet the members of Freshman Class Council — that shadowy machine that churns out representatives, homecoming floats, and apparently questionably-themed parties, is having a (sic) “Pilgrim and Indian Thanksgiving Dinner!!” in the Union…

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